KOKO Networks (UK) enters administration after carbon credit dispute disrupts funding model

KOKO Networks (UK) Limited, the United Kingdom carbon credit trading arm of a global clean-cooking group operating in East Africa, entered administration on 19 February 2026, after regulatory barriers prevented the company from monetising carbon credits that formed the core of its revenue model.

Rachael Wilkinson, Adam Seres and Mark Banfield of PricewaterhouseCoopers were appointed joint administrators of the company, which served as the entity responsible for selling carbon credits generated by the group’s Kenyan operations into international compliance markets.

The UK subsidiary formed part of a broader corporate structure anchored by Mauritian parent KOKO Networks Limited Mauritius LLC and operational subsidiaries in Kenya. The group was established in 2013 and developed a large-scale clean cooking platform aimed at replacing charcoal and kerosene with bioethanol fuel for households across urban Kenya.

At its peak, the business was one of the world’s largest developers of clean cookstove projects and had built a distribution system serving roughly 1.3 million households. The company supplied ethanol-fuelled stoves and fuel through a network of thousands of automated refuelling machines operated by local agents across the country.

Central to the business model was the generation of carbon credits tied to the emissions reductions achieved when households switched from traditional fuels to bioethanol. Those credits were transferred to the UK entity, which sold them into compliance markets and used the proceeds to subsidise the cost of stoves and fuel for consumers.

The model began to unravel after Kenyan authorities declined to issue the licence required for the continued sale of those credits in compliance markets. Without authorisation to trade existing credits or receive new issuances, the group’s ability to generate revenue from the carbon credit program was effectively halted.

Administrators said the regulatory impasse placed significant financial strain on the wider group and left the UK entity unable to sustain its operations. The disruption ultimately forced the Kenyan operating companies, including KOKO Networks Limited and KOKO Networks Global Services (Kenya) Limited, into a local insolvency process on 1 February 2026.

In the weeks preceding the administration, the Kenyan business shut down operations and laid off approximately 700 employees. The closure followed years of investment into the development of the company’s nationwide bioethanol distribution network, which had attracted backing from investors including global commodities trader Vitol and development finance institutions linked to the World Bank.

The collapse of the carbon credit pipeline has broader implications beyond the company’s creditors. The shutdown of the subsidised fuel system could push many households that relied on the bioethanol supply back toward higher-polluting fuels such as charcoal or kerosene.

Following their appointment, the administrators confirmed that a small number of employees have been retained to assist with essential wind-down activities while several others were made redundant immediately upon the commencement of the administration.